My Journey With Up with People: Last Week: San Luis Potosi

It was hard to believe that we were pulling into our last city on the road when we arrived in San Luis Potosi. We loaded up the buses earlier that morning leaving Queretaro and had quite the amusing time when a good 20 suitcases just didn't fit on the bus. How that happened, we don't know. So we loaded up the bus itself with suitcases and we were smooshed in like sardines in a can! I had a repeat bus date with Andrew, since both of us were without, and we had a great time chatting more as we cruised down the highway.

We pulled into an Oxxo just outside of San Luis Potosi to have lunch and because we thought were were going to have to transfer luggage and walk into the city, but before we knew it, we were being told to get back on the bus and we drove into the city. We unloaded and walked to a huge welcoming event! We were announced one by one to everyone in the crowd and were handed a sparkly dove made by elementary-aged kiddos. It was SUPER hot, and we were on this crazy sloped platform that made it super hard to stand on! haha. At the end of the presentation, fireworks went off and we weren't warned about it. For a split second, I'm pretty sure we were all convinced someone was opening fire on us and we had a mild panic attack, but then we realized they were just celebratory!

We had Regional Learning with bus tours and free time in the city before our Allocation meeting. I found out I would be roomed with Brekken, Brenda, and Marion with a family of a mom (Alejandra), Yaya, Yayo (Grandma and Grandpa), and two little girls, Azul and Natalie. Did I mention there were also two Argentinian dudes couch surfing? Yup...we had a full house! We were in for a great week! We spent the first night doing some fun crafts with the girls before turning in!

On Tuesday, we had an internal day with the cast. We spent the morning doing workshops and team building activities, but then at lunch time, the girls put on a Casino guy’s appreciation lunch and had a great time. It was fun dressing up and serving the guys as they played Black Jack and Poker. We cleaned up and packed up and headed to a new location on buses to a workshop called "Gallery." None of us (besides 2nd semester students) knew what to expect.

During Gallery, we broke up into our home teams and had time to rotate through different stations. We had questions in a bag, a video from our Director of Cast Operations, Dave Penny, a challenge room where we picked an envelope and completed the task, a team meeting room, a sound bit room from the whole semester (which was awesome), letters from our staff members, and then a warm and fuzzy bomb room (where you write nice things to other people to make them feel "warm and fuzzy.")

Finally, we made our way downstairs to the Gallery which was FULL of memories from all semester. Pictures, quotes, etc. It turned into a completely emotional and cathartic experience. We sat and watched a video our cast mate Tori made about what we missed from home this semester by being here (things like losing pets, sibling graduations or pregnancies, family birthdays, etc.), but also what we’ll miss about UWP when we go home. Then we watched Brekken act out going home and going through her suitcase, reliving all the memories. We finished by picked up our last allocation card and schedule- which was our own family, address, and all that information. The fake schedule was hilarious. We had more hugs, more tears, and then went into wrap-up and clean-up.

Lugging those 50lb. suitcases around is EXHAUSTING!

Wednesday and Thursday were both devoted to Study Abroad. Our professors Pete and Theresa were in town and we had fun working on things, talking through the semester, and generally, having a blast! On Thursday, our final activity was building an ice cream castle and devouring the entire thing. EPIC! We had an absolute blast that day, but really, the entire semester. What an amazing group the Study Abroad team turned out to be! Love you guys!

Trips to the Oxxo were quite frequent in Mexico. It's a "cultural experience!" haha

Thursday we also had our final Community Impact debrief workshop. The Education team gave us numbers from the semester about how much community service our cast did! As a cast, we performed over 17,200 hours of community service in 5 months! I personally completed 112 hours this semester, which I think is pretty darn cool!

Friday, I spent the day doing PRI training, which is a Promotions Representative Internship, for when I will help out in Denver. It was a good day, just full of a LOT of information. I'm excited to work with UWP more when I get back to Denver, though. That afternoon, we got together as a cast and had one final cast meeting. We recreated our first cast photo, and then had time to talk with our best friend of the cast about how we'd changed and grown throughout our semester. It was great getting to sit and talk with Sage for a good long while.

That night at home, we had an awesome girls night. We grilled hamburgers and made french fries. We sat around the kitchen table talking non-stop for quite a few hours. It was such a good way to unwind and end the day.

The next day was our final show day, which was an absolutely incredible experience worthy of its own post. Sunday was our host family day. We slept in, ate breakfast, packed, and then headed to San Luis Potosi's biggest park to have a picnic and enjoy the weather. We sat our and ate Barbacoa (which is a type of cooked lamb) sandwiches while talking about everything under the sun. We were especially reflective of our semester and what our thoughts were about going home. It was a really peaceful, relaxing day. We headed home and spent our evening baking brownies, talking, and writing notes to our cast mates for our final day the next day.


Little Azul passed out in the car

Our final day together is another day worthy of a post all its own. San Luis Potosi was an amazing way to end our tour. I am so thankful for an amazing host family, great roommates, and lots of time to reflect and appreciate all we did this semester.

Monday was our "travel day" and our last day together as a cast. That morning, we woke up, packed up, and took some last minute pictures. In our house that week, the easiest way to get from the top floor to the main level was by using a ladder outside, so of course we had to document our week by taking ladder pictures!